In a San Francisco election in which all the other supervisorial races are pretty much uncontested or filled with candidates that are hard to differentiate from each other, the campaign in District One stands out.

The race to lead the Richmond District is a sharp-elbowed, expensive fight between two distinct candidates whose goals for leading the quiet, heavily residential neighborhood are starkly different.

Incumbent Eric Mar, a progressive, says he has focused on plenty of bread-and-butter issues in the Richmond such as the recent announcement that Grocery Outlet would take over the Geary Boulevard space vacated by Cala Foods two years ago.

But Mar also readily admits he has used the job to take on bigger, nationally significant issues like childhood obesity. He is best known for banning free toys in McDonald's Happy Meals, but has also taken on broader citywide issues like improving single-room-occupancy hotels and creating a domestic violence policy for city workers.

"I feel very strongly that I'll work on the Richmond District first, but I'll also use my time on larger issues," he said, noting that much of his quality-of-life work in his neighborhood just isn't as well known as the toy ban. "It doesn't make the headlines because it's not riddled with controversy."

Challenger David Lee, a moderate, says there's no time for focusing on larger issues when the district is riddled with potholes, contains 85 empty storefronts and sports high-speed traffic along its major boulevards that has injured or killed pedestrians. He says he would model himself after Supervisor Carmen Chu, who has diligently represented the similarly under-the-radar Sunset District across Golden Gate Park and rarely makes headlines.

"A district supervisor can't solve the problems of global warming or bring peace to the Middle East," Lee said. "A district supervisor can put a stoplight at the corner of 22nd and Geary. A supervisor can get the 38-Geary to stop at the Safeway on La Playa, not 3 1/2 blocks away."

Demonstrating just how much money is being put into the race, the Ethics Commission earlier this month raised the individual expenditure ceiling for Mar to $580,000 after the total funds supporting Lee and opposing Mar rose to that level.

A third candidate, Sherman D'Silva, a store manager, is also running but has not gained any traction and has not raised any money.

At first blush, Mar and Lee appear quite similar. They're both longtime Richmond District residents and middle-aged Chinese-American fathers of preteens who have taught at San Francisco State University and been civically involved for years.

Mar, 50, was a school board member and taught Asian American and Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State for 16 years before being elected supervisor in 2008. He is divorced and has a 12-year-old daughter who attends Presidio Middle School, a public school.

Lee, 43, owns a State Farm Insurance office on Geary Boulevard with his wife and is an instructor of political science at San Francisco State. He also works as president of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee, where he drew some fire for not disclosing his $91,000 salary on forms required to be submitted by city commissioners. He was appointed to the Recreation and Park Commission by then-Mayor Gavin Newsom before resigning to run for supervisor.

Lee has a host of moderate endorsements including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma and the police and firefighters unions.

Both men accuse each other of unfair campaign practices. Lee, in particular, has drawn scorn for questionable independent expenditures on his behalf - and several complaints have been filed against his campaign with the city's Ethics Commission.

Lee said Mar is also benefiting from somewhat sketchy independent expenditures and showed a mailer painting Lee as an evil landlord against rent control (he does own a four-unit building in the Richmond, but said he supports rent control).

"When you have a supervisor who's focused on Happy Meals and going to Burning Man, how does that affect us when we have potholes that haven't been repaired and Fulton is a dangerous street to cross?" he asked. "David's going to be a fantastic supervisor because he's focused on local issues and he's not messing around with all of this nonsense."

Jesse Fink, owner of the Toy Boat cafe in the Richmond, said Lee's campaign seems to be all about trashing Mar when Lee wouldn't be able to, say, unilaterally fill the 85 empty storefronts either.

"Eric is genuinely for the neighborhood - he's not a mover and shaker," Fink said. "His heart was in a good place with that food thing, you know? He just shouldn't have gone on 'The Daily Show.' "

And some Richmond residents say they're glad to have a supervisor who cares about the big picture.

"It's easy to dismiss the Happy Meal issue as being wacky, but I think to do so misses the point," said Jonathan Foerster of the Richmond District Democratic Club, which endorsed Mar. "I happen to think that health issues, particularly those that impact our children, are actually quite important."